In such a vehicle, and more generally in any civilian or military equipment, most of the components are associated with a traceability system, both for on-board hardware such as component parts and pieces of equipment, and for intangibles such as software.
The system provides tracking and management of traceability data, typically including component identification, its guaranteed conditions, its manufacturers and users, and practical information such as its number of hours of operation, its fabrication date, and any changes made thereto.
At present, traceability data is physically coupled to the component, e.g. in the form of an optionally-riveted label, etched numbers, bar codes, etc. The component is said to be marked.
Component traceability data is also copied down or updated manually on a component log card (CLC or FME), i.e. on a document made of paper or card.
The data is also manually copied and updated in a tracking tool, which groups together and manages all of the CLCs of a given vehicle.
Although it provides numerous advantages, the present traceability system (markings, log card, and tracking tool) also suffers from imperfections.
Firstly, the traceability data can be falsified, so that components that are defective, incompatible, or counterfeit can be used in the vehicle to the detriment of its safety.
Moreover, e.g. while maintaining the vehicle, it can be difficult or tedious to consult the data, in particular when the component carrying the data is difficult to access.
Furthermore, with present traceability systems, updates are performed only occasionally, usually after the component has been removed or when the vehicle is subjected to maintenance. Also, updating is usually performed by writing or manual input, which runs the risk of being a source of error.
Recent progress over the last few tens of years in the field of electronics and wireless communications have made it easier to acquire, store, and manage traceability data.
In this respect, certain documents relating to more or less fully automated traceability systems are mentioned below.
Document EP 0 495 104 describes a vehicle management system in which a contactless card records various items of information relating to the use of the vehicle. An electronic identification label is attached to the vehicle cabin.
Document FR 2 105 206 describes a wireless link between a structure that is to be monitored for potential deficiencies, and a system for automatically triggering an action in the event of the structure suffering a deficiency.
Document FR 2 871 260 describes a maintenance memory that is contained in a piece of equipment or that is added thereto. The memory contains non-modifiable zones for storing basic information from the manufacturer, and modifiable zones for storing information associated with events.
Document GB 2 366 430 describes coupling a radiofrequency identification (RFID) electronic label to a vehicle part for the purpose of identifying the part and of the deducing a technical procedure (here recycling) for application to said part after it has been removed from the vehicle, as opposed to when it is incorporated in the vehicle.
Document GB 2 176 637 describes complex equipment with an incorporated electronic memory, within which information such as an identifier of the equipment and maintenance instructions are recorded or read. The information is made readable by means of a computer, e.g. in a repair center. The way in which the computer and the equipment are connected together is nevertheless not specified in that document.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,482 describes an automatic display for certain maintenance intervals of a vehicle.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,044 describes a concentration of state information concerning a vehicle and coming from various components of the vehicle, for the purpose of performing a secure transaction at high frequency between the vehicle and a maintenance station for the vehicle. The reading of the labels is conditioned by the validity of an identifier recorded in the memory of each label.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 6,859,757 describes a method and a system for maintaining a complex article, i.e. a “tangible structure assembled from individually labeled components”. While maintenance is being performed, component maintenance information is recorded for at least two electronically accessible labels, each coupled to a respective component of the complex article. For at least one of a plurality of electronic labels, at least a portion of the maintenance information describing the maintenance of the complex article as a whole is recorded. To perform this maintenance, the maintenance information concerning the component is recorded. At least one of the labels includes maintenance information concerning the complex article as a whole.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 7,047,159 describes a method of maintaining a complex article. First maintenance information relating to a first component of the article is retrieved from an electronic label that is coupled to said component. Second maintenance information is retrieved relating to a second component of the article from an electronic label coupled to the component. Thereafter, on the basis of said first or second information, one or more information is determined concerning the maintenance procedure to be performed on the first component. Maintenance software suitable for causing a computer to receive maintenance information determines a maintenance diary for the complex article on the basis of the maintenance information from the labels.
Document US 2007/0241908 describes managing data concerning the maintenance of an aircraft, with electronic labels being associated with components of the aircraft. A section of the aircraft is displayed, showing the locations within said section of components that have labels associated therewith. A reader is suitable for reading data transmitted by each of the labels and a memory-forming database stores the maintenance data, including data read by the reader. A user interface enables the maintenance data to be retrieved from the database, and enables the retrieved data to be displayed.
Document US 2007/0094089 provides for integrating in a car electronic labels that are coupled to parts that are suitable for being subjected to maintenance, an on-board reader, and on-board database that collates the information coming from the labels in particular.
Document WO 2007/0010619 describes a system for managing the loading freight onto a vehicle, e.g. a helicopter. In order to make loading easier, wireless transmitters (e.g. RFIDs) are placed on the articles to be loaded, and a plurality of compatible wireless detectors are placed around a loading bay. As a result, position values, possibly dynamic values, concerning the positions of loads relative to the bay are calculated by the system via triangulation operations.
In practice, the application of electronic labels to traceability techniques in the field of managing the configuration of a vehicle such as a helicopter raises specific difficulties to which the above-mentioned documents do not provide a satisfactory solution.
Thus, present traceability techniques making use of electronic labels can give rise to problems of safety, for example because certain electronic labels have a range of several meters or even about ten meters. Consequently, radiofrequency signals are emitted by those labels that can be picked up without the knowledge of authorized persons, and those signals subsequently run the risk of being decrypted.
With known systems, except by having a local installation of considerable size such as a loading frame fitted with appropriate readers, communication with the outside, e.g. for consulting the configuration of the vehicle, is inconvenient in the sense that it is difficult to excite the labels.
An alternative to such large installations, e.g. in the context of consulting data on an isolated theater of action such as an emergency intervention in the countryside, would be to provide a system of on-board labels having long range (typically active labels), but that goes against security constraints and weight constraints to which vehicles are subjected.
For use on an airborne vehicle, the weight of electronic traceability systems, including labels coupled to components, can be very penalizing or even completely prohibitive.
Furthermore, the specific environment in which such labels need to communicate is very constraining, since the vehicle possesses structures that constitute intrinsic generators of radio interference, in particular metal components, fluid tanks, connection systems, and on-board electronics.
Given their range in such an environment, the communication reliability of ordinary labels is found to be unsatisfactory.
On similar lines, electronic labels coupled to vehicle components need to operate under ambient conditions that can be extremely aggressive. Consequently, the lifetime of coupled labels runs the risk of not matching the lifetime of the components to which they are coupled, which may for example be as great as 20 years or 6000 operating hours.
Furthermore, standards and regulations in the context of aviation are particularly severe, and any traceability systems used must comply scrupulously with their provisions.
From the above, it can be understood firstly that increasing the range of on-board labels is undesirable from a security point of view and also from the point of view of the payload of the vehicle.
Secondly, the use of labels that are lightweight and simple raises not only problems of reading them (reliability, range, etc.), but also greatly reduces any possibility for encryption and authentication, since such simple labels are limited in terms of the processing they can perform, or even they do not have any processor suitable for executing the complex functions that are needed for security purposes.
The requirements that need to be satisfied for configuration management thus make it necessary to go beyond present-day solutions that are contradictory to such requirements.
From a design point of view, in terms of information systems logic, in present proposals for traceability using electronic labels, it is paradoxical that maintenance is based on the vehicle, whereas it is the components such as spare parts that constitute the core of such maintenance.
It would therefore be preferable to make it possible, at any time, to interrogate in real time components that are coupled to a label of a traceability system.
Beyond the functions that are found to be problematic with the above-mentioned traceability systems, it would be advantageous for it to be possible for aviation logistics and maintenance to be combined with services such as tracking individual components of vehicles regardless of their theater of operation, optimizing flight and maintenance planning, and optimizing component availability (stocks and orders with manufacturers), while ensuring that they are guaranteed original components in order to combat counterfeiting.